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Thread: After Universal Healthcare, Massachusetts healthcare costs going up even more

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    Default After Universal Healthcare, Massachusetts healthcare costs going up even more

    This wasn't supposed to happen by those who advocated government mandated universal healthcare.

    "WHEN Massachusetts forged ahead with a plan for universal health coverage for all its citizens, many were sceptical. It will soon be clear whether the doubters were right. The plan faces its first big test this month: uninsured residents must sign up for a health plan by the end of the year or be fined.

    Early signs suggest the plan is going well. Some critics had argued that it would not achieve universal coverage because the penalties for non-compliance (about $220, though this figure will rise sharply next year) were too small, but this week state officials announced that some 300,000 had already signed up. That is roughly half of the state's uninsured population, reckoned to be between 500,000 and 700,000. However, many of those who have recently signed up are poorer people whose new insurance is being subsidised, so the real test is yet to come.

    Another worry has been that the scheme will “crowd out” the private sector by encouraging employers to drop coverage. Here too the evidence is positive, though tentative. Several surveys of employers suggest that very few so far (only 3% according to one poll) have stopped covering their workers.

    The news on cost is less encouraging. Over the long haul, universal coverage schemes are supposed to reduce costs (see article). Another reason to think cost rises would slow down under the Massachusetts scheme is the “Connector”, a government-created and partly-subsidised market-place for insurance products that aims to beg, bully and badger health-care providers and insurers into containing costs.

    That is a fine theory, but in practice, concedes Jonathan Gruber, a professor at MIT and an architect of the state's reform plan, “We're struggling with this.” Next year's insurance premiums are likely to rise by 10-12%, confirms James Roosevelt, head of the organisation representing the state's health plans. Officials running the new health-reform effort this week declared grandly that costs must not increase by more than 5% next year—but, as Mr Roosevelt observes, that seems “more hopeful than likely”. Mr Gruber explains that the state can influence rates for those who get subsidies, but says that commercial insurers can do pretty much what they like about rates for the rest of the population.

    If costs continue to soar, the state will not be able to afford this scheme for long, and it will become unpopular. Mindful of the brewing storm, the state's insurers are launching a charm offensive. Mr Roosevelt's group promises much greater transparency in insurance pricing and wants hospitals to do the same. Will that be enough? Sunlight is a powerful disinfectant—but it may meet its match in health-care inflation."
    http://www.economist.com/world/na/di...ry_id=10254606

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    Why do you want sick children to die IHG?

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    ONly 7%? Shit, that's pretty good compared to the rest of us. And it isn't even all done yet. Go Massachusettes!

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    Our Medicare levy is 1.5% of taxable income. If we don't have private insurance we pay an extra 1%.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Diuretic View Post
    Our Medicare levy is 1.5% of taxable income. If we don't have private insurance we pay an extra 1%.
    ZOMG?!!?1?1!/1? XWSOXIALIZESM?q!/1!?

    SURELY YOUR NATION IS ON THE VERGE OF FALLING APRRAT?1!?!?
    "Do not think that I came to bring peace... I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." - Matthew 10:34

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    LoL WM you should just stop commenting on healthcare threads.

    Your record is like 1-14.

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    OMG 5-10% increase next year

    Seems to be about the same as health care costs in general are due to rise.
    That will be a low increase year if it is only that much.
    Bush doubled the debt from 5 trillion to 10 trillion.
    Proving tax cuts work!

    Bush asked for and signed for the TARP money.
    The Republican senate leader backed Bush on this.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Watermark View Post
    ZOMG?!!?1?1!/1? XWSOXIALIZESM?q!/1!?

    SURELY YOUR NATION IS ON THE VERGE OF FALLING APRRAT?1!?!?
    You're right, I'd better get my arse off to New Zealand..oh wait, they have it too...no hope for us, we're doomed!!!

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    You'd better go to America, the only safe place in the world to get healthcare without interference from pesky socialists.

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    Bring money.
    Bush doubled the debt from 5 trillion to 10 trillion.
    Proving tax cuts work!

    Bush asked for and signed for the TARP money.
    The Republican senate leader backed Bush on this.

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    Quote Originally Posted by uscitizen View Post
    Bring money.
    Mortage your house and sell your children into slavery.
    "Do not think that I came to bring peace... I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." - Matthew 10:34

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    Just come illegally. The health care is free then. All you have to do is "go to the Emergency Room"...
    Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but rather we have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
    - -- Aristotle

    Believe nothing on the faith of traditions, even though they have been held in honor for many generations and in diverse places. Do not believe a thing because many people speak of it. Do not believe on the faith of the sages of the past. Do not believe what you yourself have imagined, persuading yourself that a God inspires you. Believe nothing on the sole authority of your masters and priests. After examination, believe what you yourself have tested and found to be reasonable, and conform your conduct thereto.
    - -- The Buddha

    It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
    - -- Aristotle

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    Quote Originally Posted by Damocles View Post
    Just come illegally. The health care is free then. All you have to do is "go to the Emergency Room"...
    Yeah it's a generally accepted practice in America that if a person is in an emergency they should be treated no matter their financial or legal standing.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Threedee View Post
    IH8 posts well for someone who's been banned...
    So, that wasn't IH8?

    *snivel*

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